How does our retreat work?
Go through all the content in this newsletter from top to bottom:
- Start by viewing a 6-minute video.
- Offer the opening prayer and listen to the music.
- Read the two scriptural reflections.
- Respond to journaling prompts.
- Consider sharing some thoughts from your journaling
Estimated Time: 45-minutes
(can be done in multiple sittings)
OPENING VIDEO
OPENING PRAYER & MUSIC
Come Beautiful Spirit, come…
Still my thoughts.
Caress anything racing through my heart.
Draw me into celestial realms of sacred imagination.
Please bring me into direct contact with Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Grant me quiet refreshing time to relish Jesus’ promises of everlasting Peace and Joy.
Fill my mind with the Light and Wisdom of Jesus. Instruct me and guide me along new paths that will deepen my participation in God’s Great Love for me and for all of humanity. Ask the Father to create in me a clean heart.
Wrap me in warm blankets that soothe every part of me in need of healing. And Beautiful Spirit open the eyes of my heart to revel in every surprising Grace you have for me. Thank you for receiving me.
I surrender this time to You and seek the guidance of my guardian angel. I make this prayer with confidence in the Power, Glory, and Majesty of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN
PROPHECY REFLECTION #1
“Christmas” Prophecies and Psalm 40
by Michael Doherty
In 2 Peter we read his recount of his experience of the transfiguration,
“For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. But we have the more sure word of prophecy, to which [we] do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1: 16-19
In a very real sense, 2 Peter is asserting that human senses are less reliable than the “sure word of prophecy”. The prophecies of the Old Testament which point to Jesus give enormous footing and strength to faith in him. When the magi inquired with Herod about where the Messiah would be born, scribes were consulted, and they referenced with knowledge the prophet Micah: “Bethlehem”.
Faith in Jesus Christ, when understood through the support of Old Testament prophecies, has a stableness for our feet that according to 2 Peter, is more sure and reliable than what we could see or hear with our eyes or ears. Often people who long for greater faith will say ,”If only I could see an angel or hear God talk to me, then I could have faith,” but 2 Peter concludes that a single person‘s sensory experience (no matter how fantastic) is less reliable than that of predictions made and known and recorded from the past: Old Testament prophecies.
When you have prophecies hundreds of years old that are fulfilled in Christ’s coming, both his mission and in his death, there is a compelling reliability for us to put our faith in him. That doesn’t mean that it’s not still faith, but its faith based on compelling and reasonably assembled evidence. The ways in which the Old Testament prefigures Christ are too many to count or number in this short essay.
Micah’s prophecy of the Messiah’s place birth as Bethlehem is well known from the Christmas story, as well as Isaiah’s “A virgin shall conceive” and also his “they shall call him Emmanuel, God with us.” The study of Old Testament scripture is a powerful support to pre-existing faith, and even in an arguing power for people to come to faith. St. Augustine wrote that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ, and that makes sense. Our faith in Christ is built upon Old Testament prophecies. More sure, more reliable than an individual’s ears or eyes or experience can be.
Taking up a slightly more obscure “Christmas prophecy”: Psalm 40.
The early Church fathers, (and the New Testament writers themselves) employed an interesting hermeneutic. When reading the Psalms, the voice of the psalmist becomes the voice of the Messiah himself. It is an interesting and creative mechanism, a kind of persona adoption. That which Bob Dylan understands so well in writing songs, the early Church Fathers applied in interpreting the Hebrew Psalms: “the shifting point of view.”
Psalm 40 quoted in Hebrews:
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
Hebrews 10:5-8
Notice how the writer of Hebrews frames Psalm 40? “When Christ came into the world, he said” . . . A shift in point of view—it is not only the voice of a Hebrew poet, but it is also, now, the secret voice of the hidden, but-now-disclosed, Messiah. The writer of Hebrews doesn’t simply identify the overlay of the now disclosed speaker, but also the context of his speech: “When Christ came into the world”. Interesting. The writer of Hebrews, with a kind of apostolic authority, gives us the interior dialogue of the Messiah, perhaps just as He enters the womb of Mary? “. . . a body you have prepared for me.” This embrace of the human body is part of the Christmas-tide mystery of the Incarnation, is it not? Humans begin in this world as the conception of a single cell, and then after 9 months we are born. This Christ-child was born in Bethlehem, a name meaning “house of bread”, and this baby/body is laid in a manger—a feeding trough. And this body when speaking in the world in the maturity of his ministry, says, “I am the Bread of Life, whoever comes to Me will never go hungry”.
Psalm 40 has this “body” and its preparation in the context of the sacrificial system (albeit in the negative) “with burnt offering and sin offerings you were not pleased . . . [but] I have come to do your will my God,” a will, again according to Hebrews, that was to be an outworking of the consummation of the ritual sacrificial system.
With Psalm 40 in mind, the Gospel’s presentation of a Jesus who knows from the beginning that His mission ultimates in a sacrificial death, makes all the more sense. “Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll”. The Scriptures teach that Christ understands that the Incarnation (Christmas) is not only the gift of divine innocence coming to the world, but the gift also of sacrificial love which will stand as an eternal witness to what God’s love looks like: enduring a burden in love so something good can happen for “the sacred other”. Not dissimilar to the other half of the nativity equation: Mary, for she endures the pains of childbirth to bring forth the gift of a very special child to the world.
So here we have in Psalm 40 a new Christmas prophecy to contemplate, and as 2 Peter teaches, such contemplation brings us to a light shining in a dark place, enabling the star of the early morning to shine in our hearts: sounds like Christmas morning, no?
PROPHECY REFLECTION #2
Answering Your Call to Be A Prophet
by Terrence Gargiulo
On the other hand, one who prophesies does speak to human beings, for their building up, encouragement, and solace.
1 Corinthians 14:3
We are called… called to be prophets.
Will our Triune Holy Mighty God that emptied Himself to take the humble form of humanity not achieve His Purpose? That’s simply IMPOSSIBLE! So, it’s time for us to level up and supercharge our graced fueled batteries of faith to take up our posts as prophets.
Try to set aside the prevalent notion that prophecy is about predicting. This revelatory aspect of prophecy does play an important role in scripture. This reflection we’ll focus on our role as prophets in the Body of Christ.
How will the actualizing embodiment of prophecy be achieved to fulfill God’s covenant to shepherd us to the verdant pastures of eternal life?
Let’s look at Luke’s description of Jesus sending his disciples ahead of him to prepare the way – the way that will lead all to the Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:6):
The Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, "The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this household.' If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the laborer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, 'The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.'" Luke 10: 1-9
The Kingdom of God is at hand for us. We’re agencies of God working in the world. As we live in Christ, and Christ lives, breathes, prays, heals and works in and through us, the Will of the Father is done. His Will is for us to become co-participants, co-creators, and heirs of His Infinite Treasury of Unconditional, Selfless, Perfect Love.
The cultivation and sanctification of souls is the breaking forth of the Kingdom of God on earth. All other goals, pursuits, achievements, and expressions of life are subordinate to our call to Holiness; our return to our eternal home with God.
Jesus sends forth his disciples to experience their facilitating role in lifting others up to catch the warm thermals of God’s Goodness. Through the power and glory of Jesus’ divinity, the disciples magnify His prophetic voice. John the Baptist is the penultimate prophetic voice calling out from the wilderness preparing the way for Jesus Christ. And Jesus is the end and beginning of all prophecy.
Moses was the purveyor of conventual commands drawing the tribes of Judah into a deeper and deeper more personal encounter with God. Moses’ prophetic words of Jesus’ coming will echo throughout humanity’s journey through salvation history:
A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kindred; that is the one to whom you shall listen. Deuteronomy 18:15 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kindred, and will put my words into the mouth of the prophet; the prophet shall tell them all that I command. Deuteronomy 18:18
Jesus Christ is the gravitational field of God’s incarnate Love that never stops pulsing with its force to unite all things in Communion with His Spirit. If we are called to be one with Jesus, and Jesus reigns in our hearts and spirits, then His prophetic voice becomes the unrelenting sweetness of our tender compassionate songs reverberating with harmonies.
Our first responsibility as prophets is to share the Good News, and to live lives congruent with the possibilities engendered by our inheritance:
Death and sin have been defeated by the life, suffering, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Jesus wants to be one with us and through His Spirit, dwell in our hearts and souls. Jesus puts us in the Hands of His Father to live with them forever and participate in the never-ending Glorious mysteries of God’s Creative Love.
This Prophetic Story of Truth has been there all along. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, during Pentecost Saint Peter stands up and reminds everyone assembled of King David’s words (Psalm 16):
For David says of him: ‘I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted; my flesh, too, will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ Acts 2: 25-28
Since there’s no cap or limited inventory on the fulfillment of this promise, don’t we want every man, woman, and child of every race, tongue and creed to receive this AWESOME GIFT? Well then, it’s time to start prophesizing!
If you have any doubts about your role as a prophet, take a look at the other words of Saint Peter on Pentecost when he quotes the prophet Joel:
‘It will come to pass in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Indeed, upon my servants and my handmaids I will pour out a portion of my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy Acts 2: 17-18
The disciples were eager for the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Aren’t we? In essence we are always living in the last days. Try not to literalize it. We know neither the day nor the hour of either our death or the return of Jesus. Let us be like the five wise brides waiting for Jesus our bridegroom ready with our flasks of oil and lanterns trimmed (Matthew 25). We can be confident of our call to be prophetic voices.
Prophecy is about truth speaking. Proclaiming the Good News in contextually appropriate ways that are respectful and embracing of each other’s unique journeys, is how we move away from merely preaching the Good News and towards serving each other as prophets.
St. Paul in his letters to the Corinthians give us clear guidance on our roles as prophets.
But if everyone is prophesying, and an unbeliever or uninstructed person should come in, he will be convinced by everyone and judged by everyone, and the secrets of his heart will be disclosed, and so he will fall down and worship God, declaring, “God is really in your midst. 1 Corinthians 14: 24-25 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. 1 Corinthians 14:31
We are to encourage and support each other in conforming our lives to Jesus. Reflect on the following questions:
1. How are you helping others step into their mission and purpose?
2. Are you acting as a mirror for others?
3. Are you sharing with others the seemingly insignificant details of your lives that in actuality contain the fingerprints of God?
4. Are you encouraging others to discover narratives that connect the movements and shifts in their lives with Jesus’ healing work?
The lyrics of Tom Conry’s song Anthem encapsulate our charter as prophets:
We are called, we are chosen.
We are Christ for one another.
We are promised to tomorrow,
while we are for him today.
We are sign, we are wonder.
We are sower, we are seed.
We are harvest, we are hunger.
We are question, we are creed.
Please consider taking a few minutes to watch this video of the song Anthem. The visuals are a compelling call to action for us to discover how in whatever corner of God’s kingdom we find ourselves in, to give our rousing “YES” to our Lord’s invitation to be His prophets!
JOURNAL PROMPTS & CALL TO ACTION
Some Suggestions for Getting Started…
There is no “right way to journal.” Do what is comfortable and natural for you. It could be notes, phrases that either struck you or that are coming to mind, it might be a narrative of a memory, or it could be a drawing.
Journaling in whatever form it takes for you, is an exercise in discovering insights and recording them. The goal is to allow the content you’ve been consuming and the things you’ve been thinking about find an expression.
Invite our Lord to sit you with as your teacher. Say a simple prayer. You can count on Jesus to bring something new to your attention. The prompts below are meant to get your juices going but trust the process.
PROMPTS
- Think about a time when you were faced with a “dark situation.” What did you do to bring light and hope to it?
- Write about a time when you found yourself unexpectedly sharing something about your faith with a person you would have never dreamed of sharing it with.
- Identify one thing you’d like to do differently this Advent season to invite this “Christ”mas season into your heart and life in a new way.
- Find an opportunity to share with someone how this season of Advent is special for you.
CONSIDER SHARING SOMETHING
FROM YOUR JOURNAL
